No, she did not mutilate a Mayamalavagowla raga or make a Shuddha Saveri, ashuddha. Neither did she indulge in grave acts of heresy of the type equally prominent vocalists like O. Arun and Nithyashree Mahadevan were guilty of, by rendering and singing Christian devotionals in the Carnatic mode and even singing, god forbid, in a church. Though mercilessly trolled, the fact that they were not instantly handed a one-way ticket to some far-off Christian kingdom — like artist M.
Husain was a decade-and-half ago — speaks volumes for the generous, tolerant nature of our ancient-most civilization. Imagine, a high-born, fair-skinned musician of the purest of pure and holiest of holy classical art lineage like our traditional Carnatic form, allowing her daughter to bring home an African-American mappillai son-in-law!
A sacrilege that pollutes and contaminates our sanatana society forever. The uproar has not died down and is only likely to intensify. The Mylapore gang close cousins of those from Khan Market have all rights to fulminate in the intemperate language that Shakespeare bestowed Brabantio with, to rage against his daughter, the fair-skinned Desdemona, getting betrothed to the dark-skinned moor, Othello.
There too the issue was racism. Listen to Brabantio:. A storm of bigotry, communalism and hatred has been unleashed on social media over this weekend against popular Carnatic music singer Sudha Ragunathan. This, after a wedding invitation for her daughter's marriage to a foreign national became widely circulated on Twitter. Self-proclaimed 'protectors of the Hindu culture' alleged that the bride, Malavika, was converting to Christianity and demanded that Sudha Ragunathan not be allowed to perform in sabhas and temples any longer.
The vile comments against the family began on June 19 and continue unabated across social media platforms. The skin colour of the groom Michael Murphy, who is of African descent, further prompted racist jibes.
Rumours are also being spread that Sudha and her entire family have converted to Christianity. The attacks were not dissimilar to those faced by singers including Nityashree Mahadevan and OS Arun in August , for recording and performing songs in praise of Jesus in Carnatic ragas.
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Facebook doubles profit, but sees cooling growth. Netizens criticise Surya for not wearing mask in public What's Brewing. I could have easily sung and come home. The commitment to be there on Bahula Panchami is there. Of course Sudha cannot be defined only in terms of what the critics have had to say, for she brings considerable thought to her music. Sudha is keenly aware of the changes that are happening, the questions being asked — after all she was a close witness to the last major transition in Carnatic music.
Your music can remain for eternity but your presence in terms of giving a concert on stage will wane after a period of time. You want to do the right things and want to leave behind a normalcy, not get the next generation worried about the right formula for success.
Whatever creativity or manodharma I want to bring in here I do it within that framework. I do it in the swaras, or the kind of ragas, or in the krithis and themes that I choose for my concerts. There is so much of material and no dearth of scope for innovation. Every year, every concert they want something different. When they hear the same song they want to hear it in a different svaroopam. They can be very caustic, very critical, very demanding.
You have to keep rising above all that. Not only satisfy them but satisfy yourself too. It is not written anywhere that you have to begin in a particular way or that you have to do certain things in a concert. It is just that it has been happening that way. Sudha belongs to the shishya parampara of Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar who gave Carnatic music its current concert format.
Everyone gets into the mood of the concert. Slowly the voice opens up, warms up. The format covers a complete spectrum of what we have learnt, what we know and what we can do. Almost always I adhere to this pattern. Where will her music go from here? Now the challenge is bettering my wares, doing what I do better, leaving behind something. My clock has started ticking so I have to know what I want to leave behind.
Maybe it will just come because the awareness is very strong in me. The gathering comprised mainly of bureaucrats.
A make-shift concert room was readied and the sound check completed the day before.
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